Class 592 Assignement

For those students that missed class on Oct. 21. The following is your class assignment:

1. Find examples of Thai advertising that include elements of a foreign culture - you must find at least three examples (each from a difference campaign/product)
2. Prepare to present your findings and their foreign cultural aspects
3. Either e-mail me .jpg or .avi files of your ads by COB Tuesday or bring them into class on a CD-Rom

If you have any questions please feel free to call or e-mail me.

Why the fuss about a billboard

Recently there was considerable fuss about a billboard on the road to Pattaya. The billboard was advertising a wax museum that specialized in historical figures - not the most controversial establishment. But in this case the owners chose to use a picture of Adolf Hitler in its advertising which led to strong complaints from both the German and Israeli embassies, as well as from individuals who saw the sign. The question is why did this particular image stir up controversy.

The power of an image (especially the image of a person from history) is tied to a person's historical perspective and experience. In this case most Asian people have not had direct or historical experience with Hitler or the Nazi regime in Europe, and thus the image is not particularly powerful. In fact, in Asia it seems that many people consider Hitler to be merely interesting or even comical. This is quite different from the perspective of Jewish people, 6 million of whom were killed during the war, or German people who blame Hitler and his regime for the near destruction of their nation.

As an example from the other side of the world - there was a trendy little restuarant in Philadelphia PA, USA that used an altered image of HM the King in an advertisement. In this case the Thai Consul in New York complained to the US State Department, the City of Philadelphia and the resturant itself. The news was reported in the US, but public reaction was almost nonexistant becuase the people there just do not understand the importance of HM the King to the Thai people. It's an issue of perspective and sensitivity.

[BTW - the image above was taken from a newspaper in Miami, Florida USA]

Advertising - did you every notice

One thing that continually strikes me about TV advertising on the BTS trains has to do with how uniform and perfect the imagery is. Clearly most advertising around the work depict idealized versions of reality in order to sell us products we may or may not need, this is certainly true in the US where the vast majority of advertising depicts 'Americans' as middle class suburbanites with small nuclear families. But the advertising on the BTS (and perhaps on Thai TV in general goes beyond that) because it depicts virtually everyone as comparatively affluent, they live in nice detached homes or spacious high rise apartments/condos. Also, they are almost all 30 years old or younger and have very pale/white skin tones. Having lived in Thailand for over ten years, I have not found this type of person to be the norm in society. The question is why.

Why do the advertisers so consistently use this type of imagery to market their products? They are not stupid people, and thus they must have determined that these type of ads are effective. What does this tell us about marketing communications in Thailand and more importantly about the type of communications that are effective with local consumers? To me it shows that we as consumers are much more interested in how we would like things to be and how we would like to be perceived than perhaps how things really are. This is also show in our television entertainment where most soap operas involve people who live very elite lifestyles. This is different from US and European TV shows that often depict a wide range of socio-economic groups. My question is: why are we so fixated on hi-so lifestyles?